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Artist Markus Moestue and his homemade velociraptor bike
Velociraptor Awareness Day
Apr 18
Other Scottish Country Dances for this Day
Today's Musings, History & Folklore
1.5 oz your favorite scotch
4 T. chicken broth
3 dashes of tabasco
~ Velociraptor Cocktail recipe
Carnivorous Cheers! Toast the raptors in your life with the equivalent of a hot toddy and this rapturous reel devised for an avid birdwatcher and mimicking courtship displays! The term "raptor" might conjure up images of menacing birds of prey with a penchant for dramatic entrances, swooping in like feathery fighter jets to nab the unsuspecting. The raptor family includes eagles, falcons, vultures, and their thrill-seeking cousins—the ospreys, kites, and buzzards. But raptors also refer to a ragtag band of feathered dinosaurs from the Cretaceous Period, known as Dromaeosaurids. These ancient show-offs shared the spotlight with early birds, possibly mastering the art of the prehistoric parkour by flying or gliding as well as running and reeling about. The Scottish Raptor Study Group monitors 14 species of diurnal birds of prey, four owl species and an honorary raven. So if raptor watching of the aerial kind is a favourite pastime, it is good know that we no longer need to look behind us for speedy raptors of the velociraptor kind. And should we be transported to the Cretaceous or Jurassic period, our reeling dance skills will serve us well to bob and weave as evasive maneuvers. 🦅 🦖
Raptors' Rapture
Apr 18th is Velociraptor Awareness Day as part of Velociraptor Awareness Month.
From the www.velociraptors.info site:
April is National Velociraptor Awareness Month! The American Society for Velociraptor Attack Prevention, along with the North American Velociraptor Defense Association and the United Velociraptor Widows Fund, will be providing free velociraptor safety seminars at local Red Cross centers across the nation. Contact your local center for more information."
Besides other great tips, here are some essentials from the site, which you may not know:
Velociraptors hunt in packs, and are known to form an equilateral triangle around their prey.
Velociraptors can accelerate 4 m/s2, with a top speed of 25 m/s on open terrain, 10 m/s while wounded, and 10 m/s in indoor laboratories.
Velociraptors can open doors, but are slowed by them. They can open an initial door in approximately 5 minutes, and will take half that time for each subsequent door.
Velociraptors do not know fear.
From the American Museum of Natural History, another good source of information, we find that velociraptors are closely related to today's raptors (birds that hunt and feed on other animals):
"The more that we learn about these animals the more we find that there is basically no difference between birds and their closely related dinosaur ancestors like velociraptor. Both have wishbones, brooded their nests, possess hollow bones, and were covered in feathers. If animals like velociraptor were alive today our first impression would be that they were just very unusual looking birds."
See the fun-loving land velociraptor on a penny-farthing velocipede from artist Drew Northcutt for the dance cribs.
For recent news about the 2015 discovery of a flying cousin of a velociraptor "Zhenyuanlong suni" studied by a joint collaboration of Chinese and Scotttish scientists, click a real velociraptor velocipede by Norweigian artist Markus Moestue .
Toast or attract velociraptors today with a namesake cocktail made from 1.5 oz vodka, 4 T. chicken broth, and a 3 dashes of tabasco.
And know your escape routes.
Click the dance cribs or description below to link to a printable version of the dance!
